Here we are, continuing the lead up to Valentine’s Day. Every year I seem to make some of these heart-shaped Linzer cookies; each year a new flavor. Everyone seems to love them (har har — love… Valentine’s Day…) and they are easy to make. This year, in addition to my usual Vanilla and Raspberry “standard” Linzer Cookie, I decided to do something a little more unique: Cardamom and Passion Fruit Linzers. While not overwhelming in the cardamom department (which is good, because it can be very overwhelming), it has a nice hint of the spice. The passion fruit jam that I found is excellent. Pleased with the results!
fruits-and-berries
Valentine’s Day Linzer Cookie Collection:
These are Lemon Bars. Well, to be more precise, they are Olive Oil Sea Salt Meyer Lemon Bars with Rosemary. In my infinite search to “do something different” (I think that they call that “intensify the depth of flavor” in the recipe development biz), I decided to add some fruity and bright olive oil to the curd, finely chop some fresh rosemary and put it in the shortbread and then add just a touch of sea salt to the sprinkle on top (with the powdered sugar). Result: the most intense and flavorful lemon bars you’ll ever taste. Seriously.
Every week I make something that can be eaten “out of hand” (i.e. cookies, brownies, etc), but this week was a bit of an uninspired week, and somehow I wasn’t ready to bake something this afternoon, so just ended up making something with ingredients that I had in the house. Ended up being these Apricot White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies, with Toasted Pine Nuts. Still good for a snack on on a cold January.
With the abundance of Meyer Lemons this time of year, I thought that I would indulge in some more citrus to perk up January. The trick to this Tea Cake was to make small “dollops” of both lemon curd and raspberry jam by freezing them overnight. That means that the flavor drops stayed intact when I put them in the batter. Little pockets of goodness!





